Betty's Bad Luck in Love - Hallmark

Betty's Bad Luck in Love - premiered on Hallmark Channel on January 20th and stars Laci J. Mailey and Marco Grazzini. Laci was great as the youngest sister in the Hallmark series, Chesapeake Shores, so I was looking forward to seeing how she'd do in the starring role of her own movie.  I know Marco Grazzini already has a popular following, but I confess this is the first movie I've seen him in.

I'm honestly not sure where to begin with this one. Looking at the skyline I'm pretty sure it takes place in New York. But it opens at a school. I thought it might have been a high school where we saw two girls discussing one's feelings about a boy and then, after she had the courage to ask him to join her for lunch - another friend showed up in a jealous rage and told her she was placing a curse on her love life for the rest of her life. The next scene showed a transition of "20 years later." Actually, this is where I got a glimpse of some license plates and confirmed this is in New York. Okay, being doubtful that Laci J Mailey, or her character Betty, is in her late 30s, I had to assume that was just an impressive middle school. Later on when Betty and her best friend try to track down the girl who placed that curse on her they confirm that that was, in fact, junior high.

Speaking of Betty's best friend, let's talk about the casting in this movie. Meghan Heffern plays Mya, her lifelong best friend whom we saw with her in that open scene when she was in junior high. I'm not critiquing Meghan Heffern as an actress, she actually did a fine job in this movie. But looking at her she is visibly quite a bit older than Laci J. Mailey and I had a hard time accepting her as her childhood best friend. Had they met as adults, okay, I wouldn't have any issue with that. But childhood friends the same age?! Um, no.  I actually wouldn't mind seeing her in another role that's more suited to her age just to give her another chance. I'm seriously not trying to harp on her as an actress and I'm in no position to call her "old" but she was just not right for this role in this movie.

I also thought Mya whined and complained a lot. I understand she was planning a wedding and too many things kept going wrong. But seriously, what kind of a florist would agree to provide a certain type of flower when it wasn't in season? Isn't that their job to know what's in season? This is an example of when I think the writers were just looking for something else to go wrong without giving it much thought.

Now, the men were probably the bright spots in this movie. Marco Grazzini, as Alex, was fantastic. I can see why he has such a fan base. And Daylin Willis, who plays Mya's fiancé, was another great casting choice. Except, I thought he looked too young to be paired with Meghan Heffern.

Okay, okay, I know I've been putting off talking about Laci J. Mailey's character Betty. And I'm so sorry to admit this but that's because I thought she was too over-the-top neurotic and paranoid and not at all enjoyable to watch. There, I've said it and I can't unsay it now. I'm finding very little in the way of positive things to say about Betty. When I'm watching these movies I want to be able to connect with the characters. But I couldn't with this one.  Okay, how about this? I actually liked the first 15 minutes or so of the movie. It was kind of funny when she was rushing to go to work, not realizing it was Saturday, and she still had a curler in her hair.  But she spends the rest of the movie obsessing on something one bitter friend said to her in junior high.  And she blames herself for literally everything that goes wrong. It was exhausting to watch.

I suppose I almost enjoyed the scene in the elevator where Alex tried to calm her down from hyperventilating. But the way she behaves in the rest of the movie I couldn't for the life of me understand why he wanted to be around her. There's the rugby game and the camping trip. Oh my gosh, I could hardly stand to watch her secretly follow him on the camping trip. On the one hand this scene reminded me a little bit of I Love Lucy. I'm sure I've seen Lucy and Ethel do something like this to Ricky and Fred, but I never connected well enough with Betty's character to find this entertaining. See if you understand this - Betty's paranoid that everyone she loves gets hurt so she feels a need to stay away from anyone she cares about. And yet at the same time she follows Alex on a camping trip thinking her being close to him can somehow save him from getting hurt? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

And I mentioned the rugby game? Yeah, she ran out on the field and took the ref's whistle away from him for yet another embarrassing moment.

Oh, and how about the burning building near the end? I understood why both characters showed up at the scene - Alex is a photographer and Betty felt responsible for recommending her company invest in the company that was supplying the materials for the building that caught fire. But did you notice there were first responders, fire fighters, standing around doing nothing while a man was trapped inside calling for help? That didn't sit well with me. Okay, my husband just chimed in and pointed out that they were probably trying to determine if there was a safe way to get in the building. But for Alex to take it upon himself to enter a burning building with a gas leak wearing no protective gear to go rescue a man and no one else was even looking? No, that just didn't work for me. In my opinion, that scene would have been so much more believable if Alex had already been trapped inside the building when the fire broke out and he helped save the other man while he, too, was trying to get out. No, I can't think of any reason why he could have been in that building, but this whole scene just seemed too staged for my liking.

As a matter of fact there were too many cringe-worthy moments in this one to save it for me. I guess the best way for me to describe it is have you ever had that feeling where a movie is so good you can't wait to find out how it's all going to end? Sort of like binge-watching a TV series because you can't wait to see how it's going to wrap up?  Well, this movie was like that but not. I couldn't wait for it to end, but only so it would be all over. And after it was finally over I even queued up one of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies - yes, 3 weeks into January, which I never thought I'd do - just so I could feel some real Hallmark magic before going to sleep.

Only the next morning I still had to revisit Betty's Bad Luck in Love to write a blog and capture my b-roll for the video. Needless to say I hurried through this one faster than usual so I could put it to rest sooner.

Okay, what kind of rating do I give it? If it wasn't obvious before I didn't find anything magical about it, so I'm torn between 1 and 2 stars. The real question is would I ever turn it on again even to have it playing in the background? And no, I would not. But like I said in the beginning, I liked Laci J. Mailey in Chesapeake Shores so I'm hoping to see her in another movie just to give her another chance. Marco Grazzini, he was wonderful until his character landed himself in the hospital with a massive concussion from dancing on the stairs. Yeah, that really happened. I'm going to go ahead and give this 1 1/2 stars. But for me that 1/2 star is being generous.

I'm really curious to hear what you think of this one. Am I being too critical? I read an article about the making of this movie where Marco Grazzini said he had the most fun making this one. So maybe you found it light-hearted and funny? I tried to see it this way, I really did. It just didn’t work for me. But that's okay. Hallmark makes a lot of movies every year and some just won't resonate as well with everyone as much as some others will. Maybe you absolutely loved this movie and think I'm being way too critical. Either way I look forward to reading your thoughts about it in the comments below.

Well, I think I'm ready to wrap this one up and start preparing for next week's Hallmark premiere, Romance with a Twist which will air Saturday, January 27th. As always, thank you so much for watching this episode of Magical Movie Club. If you liked this and want to see more please subscribe to our channel and consider following us on Instagram at Magical Movie Club. You can find that link below in the description as well as links to the preview, a sneak peek video, and the movie page for Betty's Bad Luck in Love at Hallmark.com.  We'll see you next week to chat more about our favorite Magical Movies!